Pfizer dips in first quarter
pharmafile | May 1, 2009 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Pfizer
Pfizer saw its performance dip in the first quarter of 2009, with revenue down 8% year-on-year.
The company, which is in the process of merging with Wyeth, saw net profit fall 2% to $2.73 billion on turnover of $10.9bn.
The strength of the dollar against currencies such as the pound and euro dragged the company's overall numbers down and Pfizer says this affected revenue to the tune of $640 million or 5%.
But it was in the US where a particularly steep decline in revenue was seen. The world's largest pharmaceutical market accounts for almost half of Pfizer's revenue, and the first quarter saw sales in the country fall by 10% to $5bn.
Cholesterol brand Lipitor, by far the company's biggest-selling drug, is under intense competition with its US patent due to expire in 2011 and the quarter saw sales fall 13% to $2.7bn.
But Lipitor's decline was nothing to that of anti-smoking treatment Champix (called Chantix in the US), which fell 36% to $177m – Pfizer says the fall is mainly down to label changes.
The company's oncology portfolio was also hit, with sales down 17% to $350m, but although Camptosar was down 43% to $109m following patent expiry, Sutent and Aromasin both saw sales rise.
There was mixed news too in its pain drugs. Celebrex, the arthritis pain drug, had a poor quarter, down 8% to $564m, although pain treatment Lyrica continues its success with a 17% rise from $582m in Q1 2008 to $684m.
Pfizer chairman and chief executive Jeff Kindler said the past three months had in part been taken up with the forthcoming Wyeth merger.
"We continued our ongoing efforts to reshape our operating model, made substantial progress in planning for the Wyeth integration, and faced a challenging and dynamic economic and competitive environment," he said.
The company has recently announced details of how the merged group will look, unveiling plans to create two R&D divisions, with a greater concentration on the development of large molecules.
Earlier this year in January Pfizer restructured its pharma business into five units: primary care, specialty care, oncology, established products and emerging markets.
The only one of these to increase its revenue in the first quarter this year was specialty care, which was up 7% to $1.5bn.
Related stories:
Wyeth execs to lead on biotech in new Pfizer
April 08, 2009
Pfizer announces R&D job losses
January 15, 2009
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